By Tanya Steele
The Belgrave Rotary Club were up before the kookaburras for this year’s ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Upwey Belgrave RSL.
The essential ANZAC Day ‘gunfire ‘ breakfast always follows after the chill dawn service and the rotary volunteers cooked up a mammoth feast for all.
President James Gillard said the volunteers cooked for the community from around 5 am until nearly 2 pm.
“We’re just helping out and it’s quite a privilege to be able to do it day is all about those that have been our forefathers and made lots of sacrifices so we could have a good life,” he said.
The Rotary volunteers brought some of their own equipment and set up their tent at the RSL, firing up BBQs and getting the crowd of attendees fed.
“We were also blessed this year to have the assistance of the 1st Upwey scouts – their parents assisted our volunteers,” he said.
The dedicated volunteers cooked up around 350 egg and bacon rolls, along with 150 sausages with onion – with proceeds going to the RSL.
Belgrave Rotary members meet up three of every four weeks and Mr Gillard encouraged locals to pop in and say hello.
“We’re always looking for volunteers, whether that be just on a casual basis, or on a more permanent basis in joining the club as a member,” he said.
“We have honorary members who help ad hoc and then we have regular members that are heavily involved in the organising and running events.”
